Mockingbird Domestics Expansion – Community Impact

Handcraft specialty store finishes second expansion

After about six months since its first expansion, Mockingbird Domestics expanded its showroom yet again in early May.

Co-owners Jeff and Laura Daly now feature handcrafted home accessories, furniture and art in an outside showcase behind the South Lamar Boulevard store, where the couple has been in business since fall 2012. They first expanded the store’s showroom last September, and demand warranted further expansion, said Jeff, who estimated business has doubled year-over-year so far in 2014.

“Most items are on-site, so one item is sold and then another item replaces it,” he said.

Jeff works on many of the store’s handcrafted products from a workshop behind the store. He and his wife also have a regular rotation of craftsmen and artisans who provide Mockingbird Domestics with new, unique offerings that are often made using Texas or regional materials. Those same creators can also custom-build items based on customer demands, Jeff said.

“Customers have really loved that semi-customization at normal cost,” he said.

The wide range of price ranges keeps customers coming back, Jeff said. Looking forward, Mockingbird Domestics will continue expanding its custom designs to help maintain a wide variety of inventory, he said, especially online—where sales make up 15 percent of all business. Many businesses are also enlisting Mockingbird Domestics for commercial design services.

“The word is starting to spread about us, and we’re also becoming a destination for many out-of-towners,” Jeff said.